Kelly McParland: Obama needs two presidents to offset one Pelosi

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton spent 90 minutes together on Friday, before heading to the White House press room where – after someone came along to let them in – Mr. Clinton spent another half hour giving his blessing to Mr. Obama’s tax-cut compromise with the Republicans .

Mr. Clinton talked so long that the current president excused himself to go meet his wife at a Christmas function. Mr. Clinton carried on happily without him. Mr. Obama was glad to leave him to it: so tenuous is his grip on his party’s Congressional caucus these days that it takes two Democratic presidents to wheedle party members into supporting their own side.

When Mr. Obama eventually departs the presidency – whether in two years or six – it’s entirely possible historians will write that his greatest trials were not brought on by Republicans, but the fractious and hard-to-please Democrats who are supposedly helping shepherd his agenda into law. Mr. Obama is author of some of his own troubles, but he can thank Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid – Democratic leaders in the House and Senate – for contributing enormously to the midterm drubbing from which Mr. Obama is now trying to recover. By turning his health care plan into a mammoth self-serving spend-a-thon of Democratic pork projects they tacked billions on billions of unnecessary expense onto the the final price tag. By holding out against any sensible compromise they ensured not a single Republican voted for the bill. By making clear they viewed the Obama presidency as an opportunity to seize Washington and hustle it off to the farthest corners of the leftist agenda, they helped scare voters into backing a Republican comeback, even if the Republicans have nothing to sell but anger and discredited bromides.

Now the same people who served him so poorly in the first half of his term are making it clear they intend to be no more helpful in the second. Nancy Pelosi – deaf to the message sent by the electorate when she was Speaker – corralled enough support from the rump group of leftists who survived the midterm slaughter to get herself elected House minority leader, where she will be able to continue “helping” her president by scaring the bejesus out of moderate Americans. Her troops – so reasonable, these people – are already screeching about the package Mr. Obama put together with the Republicans and signalling he can’t count on their backing when it comes to the House. Hence the appearance by Mr. Clinton, who experienced a similar midterm debacle in his own presidency and managed to fight back and win a second term by learning to get along with his Republican opponents. Mr. Obama’s message is that it can happen again if Democrats in Congress can learn to quit demanding total surrender from a country in which the have the support of only a limited minority. The midterms cleared many of the moderates out of the House, leaving behind the diehard true believers, i.e. the ones least likely to be sensible.

They are upset that Obama agreed to extend the tax cuts to the rich as well as the middle class and lower incomes. He did it because it was the only way to secure passage. The deal will add $900 billion to the U.S. debt, but it’s not that figure that angers Democrats. They’re happy to pile debt on debt. Obama would have added most of the $900 billion even without the Republican compromise, since by far the biggest portion will go to tax breaks and unemployment benefits he wanted to push through anyway. But Democrats wanted the whole cake for themselves and nothing for anyone else, so they’re muttering darkly about refusing to support a president who agreed to give at least a couple slices to the opposition.

What, you wonder, was the alternative? Why, glorious failure, of course. Holding out would likely have led to a standoff, and government shutdown, just like the one Mr. Clinton endured (and which led to his near-fatal tryst with Monica Lewinsky). No one would have got anything – no breaks for middle class, no benefits for the jobless, none of the other perks Mr. Obama loaded into the bill.

That might have been the best result, since at least it would have spared future generations from struggling to pay back the money their elders borrowed. But you can imagine the Democrats’ reaction at getting nothing, given how outraged they are at getting two-thirds of what they asked for.

In the wake of a Grammy Awards ceremony that disappointed many, from Kanye West to the masses on Twitter lamenting the state of pop music, a historical perspective is key. Few are better poised to offer one than Andy Kim.